Mr Meow
by Tlingit Storyteller
Summary: Virgil loves plush toys. He gets an old teddy bear back, but what happens when it seems to be possessed? A.N.: This story IS kinda creepy, and a little scary, so the rating is NOT for show. You are warned.
1. Mr Meow

WARNING: If the movie _Child's Play_ disturbed you and you still have problems with animated objects that simply shouldn't be, you may want to click the back button. Now. No one will be weilding a knife or anything of that sort, but this story _is_ a little creepy.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own _Static Shock_ or _Child's Play_, but I do own a bear named Mr. Meow. And how that name comes about in this fic is pretty much how it came about in real life.

**Mr. Meow**

Virgil whooped with glee.His dad had _fi__nally_ gotten his rather large collection of plushies out of storage. They'd gone in several years ago when the Hawkinses had had lice, and no one had bothered to get the stuffed critters back out when it was safe to. That resulted in all but a fortunate few of Virgil's beloved stuffies being mildewy and having to be thrown away.

One of these few was a two and a half foot tall teddy bear that was aslimp as a ragdoll from how much Virgil had dragged it around when he was younger. It was the only critter in his collection that actually didn't _have_ a name. Virgil had always been careful to give each of his stuffies a name.

_Just... not this one. Oh well. Maybe Rich can help, when he gets his lazy butt up,_ Virgil thought. A wicked grin came over his face. _Why wait?_

With that, the teen pounced on his sleeping friend. That didn't get so much as a grumble out of Richie, so Virgil decided on a less tactful tactic. Tickling.

_Nope. Still nothing._ He sighed. _Richie always was a heavy sleeper. This gives me license to get out the big guns!_ The mocha-skinned teen bounded cheerfully downstairs, a maniacal grin on his face. Mr. Hawkins and Sharon pointedly stayed away from him. With a cackle of unholy glee, Virgil grabbed a glass, put in a bunch of ice cubes, and then filled it with water before bounding back upstairs to his room.

Leaning over Richie, the less sane of the two dipped his fingertips in the ice water and flicked it on Richie's face. The sleeping teen stirred, but didn't wake. Virgil's grin suddenly got a whole lot more evil. Heupturned the glass, pouring half ofthe water on Richie. The blonde boy sat up, eyes wide as he coughed and sputtered.

"What the _hell!_" Richie yelled.

Turning to try to cover his smirk, Virgil replied, "Sorry bro, but I just couldn't get you to wake up."

"Yeah, I'll _bet_ you're sorry. Haven't you ever heard of 'sleeping in?' Normal people do it all the time on Saturdays."

Virgil rolled his eyes, but grinned. "Hey, if I have to suffer through Sharon's attempt at waffles and scrambled eggs, so do you."

Richie sighed, finally getting out from under the covers and standing on the floor. He yanked on a clean pair of jeans and his ever-present hoodie. Both teens ran out of the bedroom and down the stairs, pushing and shoving each other the whole way to the kitchen. They crammed down breakfast as fast as they could, in hopes of not tasting it, then ran for the living room. They playfought loudly for control of the TV, then settled on a channel that would be playing cartoons most of the day.

Eventually, even the 'toons failed to hold their attention, and the boys wandered back up to Virgil's room. Virgil began sifting through his closet, but must not have found what he was looking for, because he moved on to his dresser. Richie just sat back and watched with amusement as his friend searched high and low, muttering, "I know it's here somewhere." Under his bed was where he found the thing he was looking for. He grabbed a large teddy bear from another corner of the room, and pulled his finding over the bear's head.

An Oregon Ducks t-shirt.

On a bear.

Richie was sure there was irony in that somewhere, but he was too busy wondering why his best friend put a shirt on a teddy bear in the first place. Although, Richie had to admit that the shirt fit pretty well. Better than it had onVirgil, who practically drowned in it the one time he wore it. Richie cast a glance in Virgil's direction in time to see him kiss his fingertips and say, "Magnifico! My work is done here," in a really cheesy attempt at an Italian accent.

Richie rolled his eyes and asked, "So what's _his_ name?" He had long ago learned that with Virgil you were in trouble if you called a stuffy an 'it.'

Apparently that was a tough question, because Virgil frowned and tilted his head like he did when he got called on to answer a question in math class. At last he said, "Dunno. Never named him."

"Hmm." A few seconds of thinking on the part of both boys yielded nothing. Virgil almost fell asleep staring at one specific area on the popcorn-paint wall, where it looked like there was a face with a long, hooked nose and shifty eyes. A bear suddenly in his face and a noise to accompany it jolted him out of it.

"Meow. Meeeow." Richie was making some very realistic kitty sounds. "Meooooow!" And bobbing the nameless bear's face up and down in front of Virgil. Sometimes he had to wonder if either of them were exactly sane.

Thus ensued an entire day of Richie following Virgil around with the bear and meowing. It earned Richie some pretty strange looks from Mr. Hawkins and Sharon, but the blonde was uninhibited by their stares. After all, what was being thought insane if you could annoy the hell out of your not-easily-irkable best friend?

Night fell, and the nameless bear was finally left alone a few feet from Virgil's bed, where it was slumped against his dresser after Richie unceremoniously plopped it there. It was all but forgotten as the two teenaged boys found other entertainment. A few hours after dinner Mr. Hawkins put his foot down and insisted the boys and Sharon better get to bed. If they didn't he was going to make them all work at the Center the next day, and he threatened to get them up at the ungodly hour of six in the morning. Not someone to be messed with if he could so easily disrupt your plans to sleep late.

Sharon grumbled, but the boys took it all in stride and raced up to Virgil's room. Virgil paused in the doorway. "Hey Rich, wasn't Mr. Meow facing the _other_ way when we left?"

"Mr. Meow? Oh, you mean the bear. Uh, no, I don't think so," Richie replied. Virgil shrugged it off. "I'm guessing the name came from my ingenious evil plot to irritate you."

Virgil nodded, grinning. Both teens stripped down to their boxers and undershirts, then literally hopped into Virgil's bed. "G'night Rich."

"G'night V. Don't let the Bang-Baby bugs bite."

Virgil rolled his eyes, though he wasn't facing Richie. _Bang-Baby bugs... oh brother..._ Thought faded away as he began to drift off.He closed his eyes for a moment, but when he opened them again they went wide with shock. _HOLY CRAP!_

Mr. Meow was facing him.

He hadn't been facing Virgil's bed when Richie put the bear down, or when they got in bed. Something was out of wack with that bear. "Rich. Rich?" _Damn. He's asleep already._ That left Virgil on his own to deal with Mr. Meow. He swallowed hard. Part of him was tempted to stay in his bed-- his inner child he was guessing, since that part of him was telling him that as long as he stayed under the covers he was safe. The other part of him told him to get up and put the bear face down if he was so afraid of having it stare at him.

After much internal debate, Virgil grabbed his red baseball bat and poked at the bear with it until Mr. Meow was facedown. He put the bat back under his bed, where he kept it, and closed his eyes.

An hour and a half later, he woke up from a dream. Virgil opened his eyes and-- nearly jumped out of his skin. He saw it. He _saw_ it. Mr. Meow had _moved._ Right in front of his wide-open eyes. The now slightly-frightened teen sat up, absently pulling the blankets up with him. The bear was no longer face down. It was, for all its floppiness, sitting up and staring straight at him. _Maybe I'm still dreaming._ He pinched himself, then bit back a howl of pain. _Nope. Most definitely _not_ dreaming._ Virgil pulled his knees to his chest. No way in hell was he getting anywhere _near_ that bear. Nope. Not a chance.

Instead, he turned his head (keeping one eye on Mr. Meow, of course) and poked, prodded and shook Richie until the other teen woke up. "Richie. Richie!"

"Nnnn..."

"Rich, Mr. Meow moved! I saw it!" Virgil whispered, casting a frightened glance at the stuffie.

"Nn-hnn. Thass nice," Richie mumbled in a sleep-slurred voice. He closed his eyes to go back to sleep, but Virgil poked him again, this time in a ticklish spot. Too tired to entertain thoughts of homicide, the blonde mumbled, "'Ll let y'off easy 'fyou leeme alone."

Panicked, Virgil whispered urgently, "But _Rich_--" Too late. Foley was down and out. _Traitor,_ Virgil thought sourly. That left him, once again, on his own to deal with Mr. Meow. When he turned away from Richie again, he noticed instantly that while he had been occupied with Richie, the bear had moved again. His left paw was no more than an inch from the red bat Virgil had previously used to knock him over. Virgil almost screamed. He had to get a hold of himself. _Okay. What do you do when one of your well-loved plush toys is possessed and potentially homicidal?_

Virgil worked up his courage, then grabbed the bear by the top of his head and threw him across the room. Mr. Meow slumped against the far wall and Virgil breathed a sigh of relief. He wasn't about to do a victory cheer or anything like that though. He knew all too well that he wasn't out of the woods yet. Until morning, he was at Mr. Meow's mercy.

He grabbed his bat.

**V.R.V.R.V.R.V.R.V.R.V.R.**

Richie woke to see Virgil sitting up next to him in the fetal position, staring at Mr. Meow in his original position. He also took note of the baseball bat across Virgil's lap. "V?"

Not daring to look away from the bear for even the time it would take to answer Richie, Virgil replied, "Mr. Meow is evil, and possessed, and scary, and evil, and potentially homicidal, and did I mention evil?"

Richie blinked, wondering where his friend had lost his marbles. Maybe Static had hit his head a little too hard last time he'd been thrown into a wall. "Uh, yeah bro. Like, three times already." Virgil nodded solemnly. "Look, not that I don't believe you or anything, but you look really tired and maybe it's just lack of sleep."

This time Virgil _did_ spare him a glance. "Whadda you think _caused_ my lack of sleep?" he asked darkly. He turned his gaze back on 'evil Mr. Meow.'

"Right. Okay. Well, you wanna explain _why_ your teddy bear is evil?"

"It moved."

_It?_ That was new. Virg never _ever_ called plush toys _it._ Always _him_, or _her._ Something about respecting them. But... "V, it's in the same position it was in when we went to sleep."

Virgil's gaze on the bear morphed into a glare. Had he been Kryptonian, Mr. Meow would have been a pile of ashes in a few seconds. "_You_ didn't see it _walk_ there."

_That's it. I'm calling the League. V needs a vacation. Bad. I'm sure they won't mind helping out. Dakota isn't too tough to keep clean,_ Richie thought as he watched Virgil continue his staring contest with Mr. Meow. "I'll be right back. I'm going to the bathroom."

"I'll watch your back, Rich." Totally serious. Straight face, grim determined expression. Virgil tightened his grip on the bat.

Richie escaped the bedroom and went into the bathroom. There he set the frequency on his Shock Vox so he could contact the Justice League. J'onn answered, and Richie thanked whoever was in charge of teenaged superheroes that it wasn't Superman. For such a tough guy he sure could act the part of Mother Hen.

He told J'onn about the situation and concluded with, "V needs a vacation in the worst way."

"I shall speak to the others, and someone will be sent to take care of Dakota temporarily. In the meantime, keep the animal toy out of Virgil's sight and try to keep him calm. We will send someone to pick you up as soon as possible," J'onn replied.

"Thanks man. Err, Martian."

TBC...


	2. WHAT!

Uh, in the _Static Shock_ series, this is sometime after Robert Hawkins finds out his son is Static. In the _Justice League Unlimited_ series, I honestly don't know. I've seen very little of _JLU_, and even less of its predecessor, the original Justice League cartoon. I'd welcome help on getting the characteriztion of the J'onn, Diana, and HawkGirl (what's her _real_ name, BTW?) down. I think I know the others alright though. 

DISCLAIMER: Yadda yadda yadda, you've read it all before.

**WHAT!**

Virgil tapped his foot anxiously as he and Richie waited on the porch. Virgil had refused to wait "in the same house as that evil freak-bear." Thus the two teens were freezing their nerves away outdoors, despite the fresh snow on the ground. Virgil had even gone so far as to warn both his father and Sharon that they'd get out of the house and away from Mr. Meow if they were smart. Richie had taken Mr. Hawkins aside and quietly explained that his son needed a vacation from hero work and that the League would be helping out. Robert had quickly given the go-ahead when he heard that Virgil had been having delusions involving a homicidal plush toy.

Diana pulled up in what appeared to be a normal car, accompanied by Clark. "We just dropped off a few members of Young Justice at an apartment near here. They'll take care of Dakota in your absence," Clark informed them.

"Now, where is this 'possessed' toy?" Diana asked.

"Mr. Meow is in my room," the coffee-colored teen replied. Then, eyeing the older heroes warily, "Why?"

"We intend to study the thing," Diana replied nonchalantly.

"WHAT!" Anyone walking by just then would have thought Virgil was white. "After that thing tried to kill me!"

Clark raised an eyebrow at Richie, silently questioning. The blonde mouthed the word 'later.' "Well then, we need to find out how it can do that," the mild mannered reporter replied.

"NonononononoNO! I am _not_ traveling in the same vehicle as that evil, creepy little bear!" Virgil protested, shuddering at the thought. He crossed his arms. He would stand his ground on this.

While the three guys talked, Diana retrieved Mr. Meow, and loaded him into the back seat of the car without Virgil noticing. Clark _did_ notice, and picked the stubborn boy up and placed him in the back seat as well. Virgil clambered to the opposite side of the short bench, making Richie climb over him and into the middle. He would've attempted to get out, but Clark was in the way and Virgil had learned early on that the Superman wasn't called 'The Man of Steel' for nothing.

Clark and Diana got into the front seats, and as soon as they were out of city limits, they found a rarely-traveled little backroad. Diana pushed a button and the car turned into a spaceworthy jet. They took off into the sky.

**V.R.V.R.V.R.V.R.V.R.V.R.V.R.**

By the time the little group finally reached the Watchtower Virgil was a nervous wreck. The engine had died twice in space, and though he didn't say it he blamed both incidents on Mr. Meow. He didn't have to say it. The way he glared at the stuffie said it all. That, and he absolutely refused to look away from it, much like a small child who couldn't look away from his closet for fear monsters would pop out and catch him unawares.

John greeted them when they arrived, and said Wally was there too. When Richie asked where, he stepped forward to reveal his partner hiding behind him. At the questioning looks he was getting, Wally got a teensy bit defensive. "Hey, we don't know for sure that thing _isn't_ possessed, and _I'm_ not taking any chances."

John rolled his eyes. Meanwhile, Virgil didn't have time to ooh and aah over the Tower like he was prone to doing. Instead he was spending his time making mental note of all possible exits and staying as far away from Clark (who was holding Mr. Meow) as possible. John and Wally helped with the bags Mr. Hawkins had helped pack. Well, Richie had packed his own, and Mr. Hawkins had packed all of Virgil's.

Apparently the freaked-out teen wasn't the only one keeping his distance from the evil teddy bear though. Wally hung back too, when Clark walked out of the hangar with the others. The energetic young man looked over at his mocha-skinned companion and asked quietly, eyes wide as silver dollars, "So it moves?"

Virgil looked over at him and said solemnly, "Yeah."

"You think it might be a teddy bear version of that creepy doll on _Child's Play_?" Quick, curt nod from Virgil. "Crap we're in trouble again. Dammit. You know, I had an action figure once that moved when it shouldn't have. Inanimate objects shouldn't move on their own. It's wrong. It's so creepy. And I can't believe Bruce is actually going to study that thing. What's its name again?"

"Mr. Meow."

"Dang. I hope it doesn't go all homicidal. I saw _The Tommyknockers_, too, with the evil possessed toys. Never bothered reading the book, I mean, come on! It's a Stephen King novel! Horror books are always scarier than the movie versions, and the movie creeped me out bad enough, you know what I mean?"

They'd caught up to John and Richie by the time Wally finished rambling. "Quit filling the kid's head with horror stories that aren't based on reality," John ordered firmly, having heard the tail end of his partner's rant.

"You'll sing a different tune when we're all trying to stay alive and running from that bear, John," Wally replied morbidly.

From the front of the group came Clark's voice, with a wry sort of amusement in his tone. "Enough with the macabre thoughts, Wally. Or should I call Chloe again?"

That shut him up. Wally had met the spunky little blonde reporter once, and that had been _more_ than enough. She scared him. Nope, he definitely did _not_ want her around.

**V.R.V.R.V.R.V.R.V.R.V.R.V.R.**

Richie and Virgil had gotten settled in, and Mr. Meow was in one of the labs on the Watchtower. Apparently Bruce and J'onn were studying it together. Someone had said something about J'onn maybe being able to detect the creature's intentions if it really was possessed. Virgil hadn't been listening at the time; he'd been busy trying to shout over the person to warn everyone on the Tower of the danger presented by his stuffie.

"Hey bro, you'll be fine on your own, so I'm gonna go check on Bruce and J'onn's progress," Richie said.

Virgil's eyes went wide. "Don't Rich! You don't have to do this! You'll be killed!"

The blonde Bang Baby rolled his baby blues. "I'll be _fine_, V. I'm a superhero, and I'll be totally surrounded by other superheroes. Besides, inanimate objects don't move on their own, bro. It's a fact of science."

"This one does!"

"Aw, come on. It's just a teddy bear."

Richie left before Virgil could reply. He climbed the ladder to the higher mattress of the bunk bed they'd been given and sat down. Maybe Richie was right, but a knot was forming in his gut, telling him something was off... .

**V.R.V.R.V.R.V.R.V.R.V.R.V.R.**

The door of the lab slid open, and Richie grinned. Bruce and J'onn were taking a pizza break. He joined them, helped himself to a slice of pizza and asked, "What've you found so far?"

"Nothing," replied Bruce. "We're waiting for the chemical test we're running on it to finish up."

"Chemical test? Like for Bang gas?"

"Among other things."

Richie nodded, and the room drifted into a comfortable silence. Unfortunately, distraction came with a price. The bear sitting on the counter in a little glass cube turned its head to look at the three superheroes. Its eyes flashed briefly with an unholy light... .

* * *

DUN DUN DUN! Cue the creepy music!

Thank you, guys, for being so patient for the next chapter of this fic. I just couldn't figure out how to do what I wanted to do. I'm moving sometime this week, though, and may or may not be able to get updates out very often. I'll let you know as soon as I know.

Big thank you to **leev**, for helping my plot bunny have baby plot bunnies for this fic!


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